I have been collecting folk recordings, mostly by artists from the United States and the British Isles, for about 40 years. This blog is intended to share a few of these recordings (all believed to be Public Domain under EU law where this blog originates) and make them available online for research and scholarship in accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107. Also included are links to other interesting blogs, websites, and freely available folk audio and video.

Sonntag, 24. Oktober 2010

The 1927 Ralph S. Peer recording sessions in Bristol, VA/TN (Bristol is located right on the Tennessee/Virginia stateline) have been described as "the big bang of Country Music". They proved that recordings of folk songs and by rural traditional artists could actually sell and established the first commercially highly sucessful performers in that genre, The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers.

On July 21, 1927, Ralph S. Peer, aided by his wife Anita and two recording engineers named Echbars and Lynch, set up his portable recording equipment on the second floor of the Taylor-Christian Hat Company warehouse at 410 State Street and ran ads in the local newspapers advertising for local talent to be recorded on the spot for $50 a selection plus royalties of about 2.5 cents per side.

"Musicians from the region had been recording mountain music since 1923, but they had to travel to New York and New Jersey studios to do it. The Fiddlin' Powers Family from Scott County had already recorded several records. Henry Whitter, from Fries, VA, along with fiddler G.B. Grayson, had produced notable recordings, such as "The Wreck of the Old Southern 97." Ernest Stoneman of Galax, VA had become very popular with the enterprising record producer Ralph Peer as a musician who could bring the music of the southern mountain region to the studios of the north.

Peer recognized the possibilities of this mountain music sound. Record playing machines were becoming popular, both with electricity in the urban regions and with hand-cranks in the non-electrified areas of the country, and the technology of recording this music had developed so that portable recording studios were possible. Peer decided to pack the recording equipment into a car and travel to the southern Appalachian region and find new talent. He knew of the region and decided that Bristol, a thriving town on the Tennessee-Virginia border, was to be the first stop on the recording tour.

The mountains clearly held musical talent, and Peer simply had to find a way of drawing it off the front porches.... He... placed advertisements in local newspapers that announced the Victor Recording Company was coming to town. These notices were also inserted in the advertisements for the local dealer of the Victrola company, the Clark-Jones-Sheeley Co. at 621 State Street. Accompanying these notices were news articles stating that "In no other section of the south have the pre-war melodies and old mountaineer songs been better preserved than in the mountains of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia...and it is primarily for this reason that the Victrola Company chose Bristol as its operating base..." The news articles also mention that in the previous year, Ernest Stoneman had received $3,600 in royalties from the records which he had made. In 1927, like today, money talked, and musicians who had struggled to make a living on the hillside farms and the coal mines decided that they were quite capable of making music like Stoneman, and they came to record in Bristol."-- Dave Winship

The Carter Family (A.P., Sara and Maybelle): Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow, Little Log Cabin By the Sea, The Poor Orphan Child, The Storms are on the Ocean, Single Girl, Married Girl, The Wandering Boy

DISCLAIMER:
Please do NOT watch this if you're concerned about political correctness (of today) -- this pre-code item is certainly FULL OF RACIAL STEREOTYPES of the time it was conceived and produced (1932).

If, however, you're interested in some of the earliest footage of Louis Armstrong (quite possibly THE earliest footage) and/or the animation skills/techniques of the Max Fleischer studios, you will enjoy this brief clip!

Betty Boop:

I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You (1932)

Reviews and discussion (excerpts - ibid.):Reviewer:valeyard - - December 28, 2006Subject: Great song, hard to watch
It's a great song. It's hard to watch though, because of the way they juxtapose Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra with such racial stereotypes. It just doesn't seem right to have them portrayed that way. I can't help wondering how Armstrong felt about being portrayed that way. Still it's a gem to watch solely for the song. Love the song.

Reviewer:Al W. - - March 24, 2008Subject: Times Change
It's hard to call things like this racist when the prevailing sentiment of the times was that it was OK. There are so many old films that contain things that we as modern people find offensive, but I'll contend that they need to stay and preserve the feelings of the time. And I'll add, this song really swings. The black performers of the 30's really knew how to play great music and given that the times were what they were, this is one of the few venues we have that preserve that part of history.

NOTE:
The Uncle Dave Macon tracks from this particular show are NOT included in Bear Family Records' allegedly "complete" Uncle Dave Macon box-set nor in the discography by Ralph Rinzler, Norm Cohen and Tony Russell from that set.

I've compiled all the Goebel Reeves tracks in my own collection (from two reissue CDs) and tried to date and arrange them in chronological order with the info provided on CD sleeves (quite often erroneous) and info from Praguefrank's Country Discographies-- any corrections are more than welcome.

In the cases where obviously identical tracks sounded decidedly different (transfers from different 78s sources and/or possibly speed issues), I have included both versions.

Mittwoch, 13. Oktober 2010

When consulting IMDB about a Public Domain movie at archive.org ("The Silver Trail", 1937), I came across the following review:

"Near the beginning of the film, there is a character called "Hank", presumably the brother of Lease's character, who is never seen again, but performs two nice old-time country songs in the Montana Slim/Wilf Carter vein."

Further research by myself identified "Hank" as GOEBEL REEVES "The Texas Drifter", most notably known as author of "Hobo's Lullaby" (made famous and often erroneously attributed to Woody Guthrie).

Goebel Leon Reeves, 9 October 1899, Sherman, Texas, USA, d. 26 January 1959, Long Beach, California, USA. Reeves was one of the true characters of country music, one who managed to reverse the rags-to-riches story, and from his nomadic lifestyle, he acquired the nickname of the Texas Drifter. He received his early training from his mother, a talented musician, who taught both piano and singing. His father, once a salesman, was elected to the state legislature and when the family relocated to Austin, he secured Goebel a job as a page-boy in the government buildings.

Reeves’ long association with hobos started one cold night when, as he left work wearing an expensive new overcoat given to him for Christmas, he met a hobo. He subsequently arrived home, coatless, but engrossed by tales of hobo life. He began to spend more and more time talking to any hobo that he met in the neighbourhood. His parents provided a tutor to improve his education and, although intelligent, his interests turned to the lifestyle of the hobo and to music after hearing a vaudeville artist called Al Wilson. He was impressed by Wilson’s singing and yodelling and it was probably Wilson who first taught him the yodel that he used so proficiently. He already played piano and trumpet but now turned to the guitar and began singing cowboy songs such as ‘Little Joe the Wrangler’.

In 1917, he joined the army (initially as a bugler) and saw action in Europe, where he was wounded and returned to the USA for discharge. Soon after, he left home and adopted the life of a hobo. He eked a living by singing on street corners and from that point many aspects of his life are unclear. He was known to fabricate facts - an early one being that he was born west of the Pecos and had been a hell-raising cowboy. On occasions, Reeves has been branded a liar, yet sometimes his outlandish stories were found to be true. He certainly played WFAA Dallas in the early 20s and his claim to have befriended and worked with Jimmie Rodgers was not disproved by Nolan Porterfield in his definitive book on Rodgers. He apparently even claimed to have taught Rodgers how to yodel. However, Reeves was infinitely the more accomplished exponent of the art and since their yodels are dissimilar, this may have been just one of his inventions....

...‘The Kidnapped Baby’ recorded for Decca Records in January 1935, would seem to be his last professional recording; for some reason, it received a UK release but not a US one. The final Reeves recordings were the transcription discs that he made in 1938/9 for the Macgregor Company of California....

... Reeves made an important contribution to country music and his style influenced many other artists. Many of his songs, especially ‘Hobo’s Lullaby’ (later also popularised by Woody Guthrie) and ‘The Tramp’s Mother’, have been recorded by countless other artists while many people rate his amusing ‘Station HOBO Calling’ to be one of his best songs. Any genre of music needs characters and, in Reeves, country music had one, which is why his work is still so popular; as Hoeptner emphasizes, ‘he had the intellectual capacity to convert his experiences to recorded accounts, which were both artistically and commercially successful’.

"Known under the amusing but somewhat dusty stage name of "the Old Hired Hand," this performer's real forte was as a radio announcer. However, the loose blend of live radio production and music that dominated the classic days of country music, old-time, and early bluegrass radio broadcasting allowed him to develop an interesting persona that was half-disc jockey and half-frontman vocalist; although he also tended to incorporate someone with a smoother voice to act as the real lead singer. More important to bluegrass lovers, he presided over a loose aggregation of bluegrass pioneers based out of South Carolina through the '40s on his radio and recording projects. The combo often included the titanic tandem team of fiddler Homer "Pappy" Sherill and DeWitt "Snuffy" Jenkins, as well as guitarists and singers such as Leonard Stokes, Clyde Robbins, Floyd Lacewell, and Gene Ray. Whether Parker's influence was benign or heavy handed, the musical results cannot be denied....

Jenkins and Sherrill were on hand throughout the Parker combo tenure, coming up with instrumental touches that have been considered key influences on the progressive bluegrass developments of players such as Earl Scruggs and Don Reno. Following the leader's death in 1948, the group itself adopted his old nickname and became known as the Hired Hands. Parker was also one of the earliest members of the Monroe Brothers band, and has been credited with playing a key role in their success and the popularization of bluegrass that resulted. He played with the Monroes from 1934 to 1937, appearing on the group's first recordings for Victor in 1936. His departure also coincided with the decision by brothers Bill Monroe and Charlie Monroe to pick their separate ways. At this point, Parker organized his first band, the Hillbillies. Later he would refine the name only slightly, changing to Byron Parker & His Mountaineers, or often the Old Hired Hand & His Mountaineers."(SOURCE: http://www.answers.com/topic/byron-parker-1)

An extended version(total length: 62:58) with detailed comments by Henrietta Yurchenko introducing/closing the original broadcast (highly recommended) is available/downloadable from the Down Home Radio Show website.

Interview with Alan Lomax about Leadbelly (Henrietta Yurchenko)"From the Yurchenco Archives: On today’s show I air an interview Henrietta Yurchenco did with Alan Lomax about Leadbelly. I’m not sure when this interview was conducted (there was no date on the tape), but I think it was done in the mid 1960’s for one of her broadcasts on WNYC. Alan Lomax gives a really excellent talk about Leadbelly, about his music and about when he and his father John Lomax first encountered Leadbelly at the Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana. After the interview I play some of the very first field recordings that the Lomax’s made of Leadbelly when they met him that day in 1933, and when they returned to record him again in 1934. Thanks go to Nathan Salsburg of the Alan Lomax Archive for supplying me with those recordings."(Eli Smith, Down Home Radio Show)

First Session:In the spring of 1927, Judge Hay, the Grand Ole Opry announcer, arranged for DeFord and two other musicians to record at Columbia Records in Atlanta. DeFord recorded only two songs, "Pan American Blues" and "Hesitation Blues." Judge Hay was not pleased with the session and canceled the deal. The two Columbia sides were never issued.

Second Session:Judge Hay then arranged for DeFord to record with Brunswick and Vocalion in New York. DeFord recorded eight songs, "Pan American Blues," "Dixie Flyer Blues," "Muscle Shoals Blues," "Evening Prayer Blues," "Up Country Blues," "Old Hen Cackle," "Alcoholic Blues," and "Fox Chase." The songs were issued in the Brunswick 100 "Songs of Dixie" series, apparently the only songs performed by a black musician in the entire series, and again in the Vocalion 5000 series entitled "Old Time Tunes."

"I recorded eight tunes and I played every one of them perfect the first time. They couldn't get over that. They said I was the first one to ever record in that studio who didn't have to play something more than once."

Third Session:DeFord's third commercial recording session happened at Victor in Nashville. It was the first recording session to take place in what would become Music City USA. Only three of the eight sides he recorded were released by Victor: "Ice Water Blues," "Davidson County Blues," and "John Henry."

"Between 1973 and 1982 David Morton recorded many hours of his visits with DeFord Bailey, and most of them included music by the musician. Only one of those tapes, however, was a gift of music for someone else. That particular tape with a large number of tunes and conversation was made by DeFord in December 1973 specifically as a Christmas present for David's father who had long been a fan of the Harmonica Wizard. On the tape David explains why it is being made and DeFord extends a personal greeting to "Mr. Wilson Morton" in Shawmut, Alabama, and then proceeds to play many of his favorite tunes. As usual in David's visits with DeFord, much conversation inevitably took place in the taping, showing their relationship, as well as providing a most valuable recording of many of DeFord's tunes.

David took the tape to Alabama at Christmas in 1973 as a gift from DeFord Bailey, and returned with a large ham, and other presents from his father and mother for his friend. Wilson and Edna Morton kept the tape as long as they lived, and frequently played it. After their death, David brought the tape home with him. Some of the tunes on the tape were later used in the Tennessee Folklore Society CD of DeFord's music. In early 2006 David had the tape digitized and gave copies to DeFord's children, ex-wife and special friends who had helped him in calling attention to DeFord's accomplishments. Later in the year Andrew Morton persuaded his dad to make this special "Christmas present" of DeFord's music available on this web site. We think you'll enjoy it!"(David Morton)

"One of the first letters sent to Lost and Found Sound came from a listener who told us that no series about the sounds of the 20th century would be complete without the sound of the Pan American Train passing the WSM Radio tower in Nashville. The 10,000 watt station broadcast the sound live each day at 5:08pm - Nashvillians and listeners from all across the South and Midwest set their clocks by the sound.
In searching out this sound, we were led to the remarkable story of Harmonica Wizard DeFord Bailey, the first black to perform and tour with WSM's Grand Ole Opry, whose signature song, Pan American Blues, inspired the naming of the show. DeFord's story, along with the story of WSM and its legendary Grand Ole Opry make up this programProduced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson) with Laura Folger. Mixed by Jim McKee at Earwax Productions, San Francisco"(All Things Considered, November 24, 2000)